Belhaven, North Carolina

Belhaven Memorial Museum

A monument to the sheer amount of oddities one can collect over a lifetime.

The Belhaven museum is comprised almost entirely out of the collection of one woman, “Miss Eva.”

Her life of avid collecting of began small with a collection of buttons given to her by her mother. Over the years, her collection grew to over 30,000 buttons from around the world. Her interest was not, however, limited to buttons. She collected Christmas memorabilia, period clothing, toys and dolls, china, farm tools and natural history specimens.

Her collection grew to over 10,000 items (not including the 30,000 buttons of course), and at her death at the age of 93, this vast and priceless collection was moved to its current location in the historic town hall. Favorites include a mustache cup and it’s matching saucer which states its motto, “A mustache makes a man. A razor makes a mouse.”

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